Shakespeare’s Hamlet grapples with themes of revenge, despair, indecision, mortality, and the place of the individual in the sweep of larger events. This course will take students on a deep exploration of the play itself and of the Elizabethan world that produced it.

Our focus will be on the text of the play itself—what is on the page and the stage? How does the play align with or differ from what we think we know about it? What do we make of the central problem of the play: the character of Hamlet and his moral quandaries? What does the play tell us about morality, honor, duty, and responsibility? What does it tell us about politics?

Students will also explore brief excerpts from literary critics like Samuel Johnson, A.C. Bradley, Helen Vendler, and others to gain a sense of the wide range of ways in which Hamlet has been interpreted and reinterpreted over generations, as they work their way towards their own understandings for themselves and their generation.